All the MK1 6 dials plug straight into any MK1 loom, you just have to add the oil pipe for the pressure gauge, and plug the white loop from the tacho into the black ignition wire.

If you are unsure about your temp gauge just try discinnecting the wire at the engine end, and shorting it to earth while the ignition is on, check the gauge, if it goes quickly right up to the stop it is working fine, but you may need a temp sender with different resistance.
Contrary to what the aftermarket suppliers say, there were many different resistance values on Ford senders, and these mated to different engine/ dashboard combos, they are colour coded to tell them apart.

The volt gauge is never very acuurate, basically anywhere in the green running with a charged battery is right.

As for the tacho, is it wired correctly? it should have no connections to the coil, basically it picks up power from the dash/loom feed, and picks up pulse signals from the black ignition wire that connects to the small white sensor cable (hard to explain without a picture), that white wire passes a pickup on the tacho.

It's not uncommon for the tacho's to be rooted, and also to need a "charge up" because of the pick up type they usually need a good run to work right if they have been standing for ages.

Finally there is one way it can get difficult, the very early cars had different looms to later ones.

good information
it's a '74 so Im hoping its the better loom you were speaking of.
yes the car has been sitting for a long time but idled regularly (previous owner) ahh well... gives me something to do tomorrow

Thanx john but i think I got it sorted.
Faulty temp sender, no connection to the motor for the oil pressure.
Fuel gauge needs to be checked and float bent to adjust.
The wiring behind the pod looks to be connected properly.
The tacho wire will be replaced with a shielded jobie soon

Re the inquiries in Jul 2008 about converting std escort mk1 dash to 6-dial. I've just done that and have hooked up wiring loom as per "post 69 all models" diagram off net. Mine is a mk1 1970 with pinto + alternator conversion. When attempting to hook up the tacho it just whips round past 7000 off the scale when ignition is swtiched on, i.e. before even cranking the engine. Cant figure out whats going on here? Any ideas? I'm hoping the gauge. Is an old tacho repair costly?

With the black loop wire that goes through back of tacho (mine is not white), does it just feed through the hole in the plastic bit, with no metal to metal contact? Excuse my ignorance here.

Plus, temp gauge works but by the time normal operating temperature is reached the gauge is off the scale (no, its not overheating). Mark Cogan gave some good advice and commented that it may be incorrect sender unit, i.e. wrong resistance for gauge. Mine is definately aftermarket sender. Any ideas on what resistance sender to get compatible with early mk1 7000rpm/mph GT/mexico style 6-dial.

Sounds like a voltage regulator problem (quite often attached to the back of the instrumen cluster). I'm pretty sure the original gauges all run through the regulator which feeds them less than 12v (no idea exactly what it is).

Richard wrote:Re the inquiries in Jul 2008 about converting std escort mk1 dash to 6-dial. I've just done that and have hooked up wiring loom as per "post 69 all models" diagram off net. Mine is a mk1 1970 with pinto + alternator conversion. When attempting to hook up the tacho it just whips round past 7000 off the scale when ignition is swtiched on, i.e. before even cranking the engine. Cant figure out whats going on here? Any ideas? I'm hoping the gauge. Is an old tacho repair costly? The tacho may need some run time to get it working, I have had this happen before only for it to then work properly after a little while, it could be rooted though

With the black loop wire that goes through back of tacho (mine is not white), does it just feed through the hole in the plastic bit, with no metal to metal contact? Excuse my ignorance here. Yes it does just feed through there, never seen a black one, the correct wire I have seen is always white, not sure if there is anything special about it that would make using normal copper wire give odd readings???

Plus, temp gauge works but by the time normal operating temperature is reached the gauge is off the scale (no, its not overheating). Mark Cogan gave some good advice and commented that it may be incorrect sender unit, i.e. wrong resistance for gauge. Mine is definately aftermarket sender. Any ideas on what resistance sender to get compatible with early mk1 7000rpm/mph GT/mexico style 6-dial. A MK1 RS2000 sender if bought from Ford would be correct, but there is no guarantee that an aftermarket one will have the correct resistance, this may need some experimenting to get it to work, try one for an early Pinto Cortina as first guess

i had similar problems with my car the temp & fuel gauges were fine but the tacho & volt gauges were a problem for memory all those years ago , i ran a new tach wire to the coil and sourced a volt gauge from an xc falcon gt , same ..but maybe diferent resistance ???the other main problem with 6 dial dash is the conector plug they realy are just crap pommy electrics mine was more complicated as it was one of the ausy content ones with extra bits like 4 way flashers , brake warning light , & kph speedoas far as i am aware there was never a proper wiring diagram for a mk1rs2000 au

Cheers, for that. I'm certain that its all hooked up correctly now, its just that dammed black-yellow power wire that makes it go haywire as soon as the key is turned. The funny thing is that I know the tacho works because I ran a wire straight from the power terminal on the back of the tach to the (-ve) side of the coil. I know that isnt correct but it showed the tach worked.

I might just hook it up as per the diagram and see if the needle comes back and starts to work?

Yeah, temp gauge ok now. I needed to run it through the voltage reg on back of dash. Fuel gauge not ok but I think that may be the sender unit.

Hi Mark,Just a question. You said that the tach might come good by itself after a bit of running and you have experienced this before. Before yours came good, was the needle just not moving at all or was it behaving like mine, i.e flicking round past 7000 off the scale?

Richard wrote:its just that dammed black-yellow power wire that makes it go haywire as soon as the key is turned.

Hi, diagnosed a Mk1 with the same problem years ago. Turned out that wrong wire was put through the "loop".The black-yellow wire is the feed for all things. You need to run the wire to the coil through the loop; this wire is a "take-off" from the black-yellow one. Hope this helps, Leon.

I think Leon has hit the nail on the head, if you look back to my original post I said the tachometer wire white loop plugs into the black, not black and yellow.

On many of the standard dial cars there will be a break point in this black wire with grey male and female bullets to disconnect and join to the inductive tachometer wire, but on some looms there is not and you have to cut it.

But in answer to your question, yes I have had the rev counter go all the way to the top, then unstick itself shortly after ( when connected correctly)

Yes, when I took the dash out, the black loop wire was sitting there with a connector as per standard escort model. Thats all hooked up now through the tacho loop as per diagram. The black-yellow is also there and, yes, it is also feeding the voltmeter directly and the fuel and water (via the voltage reg). Soooooo, I'm going to take it for a spin and see if it "unsticks" itself.